Sam Smith To Pay Royalties To Tom Petty

Music News

Posted on January 27, 2015

British singer Sam Smith has agreed to credit Tom Petty as an author of his Grammy-nominated hit Stay With Me after acknowledging similarities - which he insists are coincidental - to I Won't Back Down.

Representatives for Smith - whose soulful ballad about a one-night stand has sent the British singer's career soaring since its release in April - said that they had been contacted by Petty's side over resemblances to his 1989 song.

"Although the likeness was a complete coincidence, all involved came to an immediate and amicable agreement," Smith's representatives said in a statement.

Stay With Me now lists as co-writers Petty and the Electric Light Orchestra's Jeff Lynne, who worked with Petty on I Won't Back Down, along with Smith and his collaborators James Napier and William Phillips.

While details were not disclosed, songwriting credits would entitle Petty and Lynne to proceeds from Stay With Me, which was one of the top-selling singles of 2014.

Smith is tied for the highest number of nominations at next month's Grammys, including the prestigious awards of Album of the Year and Record of the Year.

I Won't Back Down appeared on Petty's commercially successful 1989 album Full Moon River, the Americana rocker's first solo work without his backing band The Heartbreakers. AAP